Genetic abuse

NEW laws may be needed to stop employers misusing genetic data to select or sack employees, a leading geneticist warned this week. "Legislation may be needed to protect the rights of an individual employee," said Walter Bodmer, the director-general of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, speaking in London.

The new laws should prevent employers from demanding potentially damaging genetic information that has no special relevance to the nature of the particular employment, said Bodmer, former head of the international Human Genome Project. "Only in cases such as colour blindness and commercial flying, where a particular genetic difference may be coupled to a particular job or category of employment, should the legislation be permissive," he said.

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